


All American Boy

by certaintiescertainly



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Beach Episode, M/M, Team Bonding, happy birthday shiro, he deserves every nice thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 15:05:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13860258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/certaintiescertainly/pseuds/certaintiescertainly
Summary: "...they're going to save the universe."A happy team moment, written for VLDexchange's Shiro's Birthday event! Requested by and a gift for artypants1017 on tumblr.





	All American Boy

 

Breaks are rare, but even rarer are the opportunities to relax and explore somewhere safe and peaceful. 

 

They all barely,  _ barely _ wait for the atmosphere to be ok’d as safe for humans, and then they’re practically racing for the castle’s main entrance. Lance even shouts, wordless, and Hunk and Pidge match him, yelling themselves into a bigger tizzy. Shiro is grinning, he can feel himself doing it, like an involuntary action, and then his boot hits lavender sand, and were he not so well-acquainted with his own sense of balance, he might trip over the transition from cool, smooth metal to soft, almost powdery, ground. The castle was right on the edge of the beach, on firmer ground, but they’d collectively begged to land as close as possible, to make trips between sand and surf and home turf faster. 

 

All five of them pause, suddenly shy of approaching the ocean. Suddenly grasping the meaning of a ‘break’. Glittering water stretches out before them, and the sand may be exotic but the water is the clearest, most brilliant blue Shiro’s seen off of Earth. The sound of water pulling at the shore is the  _ only _ sound, for a moment. 

 

But just for a moment. Lance challenges everyone to a race, ( _ last one to the water is a rotten egg! _ ), and Shiro can see Keith, quiet until then, visibly force himself to keep from taking the bait. They all run for the water anyways. 

 

It’s the kind of all-out fun that Shiro no longer looks to expect, and much less (an afternote, but it gains significance when he remembers, and suddenly can’t stop thinking of) on his birthday. The team doesn’t know, or so he thinks, until about midway through the day, when he’s sunning himself, he hears someone giggling, someone else shushing them, and he shades his eyes to see the whole team approaching, all with gifts, actual wrapped gifts in hand, and. It must be Keith that told them, right? 

 

That question crowds another thousand questions, like  _ where did they get gift wrap? _ and  _ what could they possibly even get? _ The answer to the first question is met with staunch refusal to specify, but the second is...actually incredibly sweet and heartfelt. The gifts are handmade--a razor, from Pidge, who must have remembered him complaining about the Altean tech in the bathrooms being unnerving, if effective, and designed him a handheld electric razor from the  _ ground up _ because she can’t do anything halfway. Hunk’s gift is a pair of chopsticks, which would be, er, a little stereotypical, except Shiro definitely mentioned it, in their reminiscing about Earth, missing the simple tools, along with Chinese takeout and sushi and just eating Cheetos without getting the dust all over himself. They’re hand-carved. Because, again, with the geniuses and not doing halfway things. Hunk also announces that dinner will be the best facsimile of Korean BBQ that he can manage, and all rejoice in unison.  

 

Lance loudly proclaims his gift to be the  _ best _ one, of course, and it surprises him to find that he’s actually found a game system and modified it to work on the Castle. He has one for himself, but he dug up and modded another one for Shiro, who, yeah, actually really had missed video games, though he doesn’t remember saying as much, except maybe to Keith, so, can’t tell that guy anything, apparently. Allura and Coran put their heads together for a joint gift, and in traditional Altean fashion, it’s primarily practical, with sentiment woven into it in a warm undercurrent. A little handheld cube, meant for pictures, with holographic capabilities, but also just plain flat, full-color images. They’ve already recorded a couple, to show off--the outside of the castle, today, in full sun and with the beach visible. Shiro laughing with Keith on his shoulders, chest deep in water as they fight Hunk and Lance for dominance of the seas (they lost, and Lance will be crowing about it for the rest of their natural lives). 

 

Keith’s gift is tiny, and he passes it over last, with a quiet smile, half-hidden. And Shiro isn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at it, which is so  _ typical _ of Keith, who has provided him with a  _ mixtape _ . And the goofball has the audacity to be shy about it! He pulls him into a bear hug and maybe sniffles a little bit, but only a little, and it’s hidden in Keith’s hair anyways. If anyone sees it, they give him a break about it, because no one says anything. 

 

Later in the evening, full of alien BBQ which, admittedly, was still pretty close to the real thing, Shiro stretches out on the beach next to Keith and, to the red paladin’s embarrassment, plays the first song. 

Keith isn’t a fan of country, but he knows Shiro is, and he’s somehow got his hands on recordings from Earth, and he does laugh when Steve Grand’s  _ All American Boy _ plays, because it’s not just country, Keith nabbed him  _ queer  _ country music, and he’s so thoughtful and wonderful and Shiro’s chest practically bursts with emotion as he tackles Keith, at his side, down to the sand. Keith laughs, even through Shiro’s kiss. A lot of country is bittersweet, and the song he’s kissing Keith to is no different, but the moment is pure spun sugar, as he buries his hands in black hair and kisses him until they’re both out of breath, panting as the three suns set behind them, bathing them both in gold light. 

 

It’s the best birthday he could have hoped for, with his new family, his best friend and partner, and the expanse of space glittering above them. The two of them end up on their backs, stargazing, which is so familiar that even if Shiro wasn’t full to the brim with emotion, that alone would have done it. The stars are different, but they start to find patterns together, as they lie there, and space hasn’t exactly been kind to Shiro, but he’s always been looking at the stars, and hoping, and, really, they did it. They’ve made it, together, among the stars, like they promised each other they would, close and hidden in the Garrison, hands linked. They’re pilots, they’re  _ paladins _ , and they’re going to save the universe.

 

But only after another kiss.  


End file.
